U.S. advertising spending is growing faster than expected this year and
should accelerate next year as the elections, the Olympics and the millennium
boost demand, according to forecaster Robert Coen, senior vice president for
McCann-Erickson Worldwide.

Coen, said he expects ad spending will rise 6.1 percent this year, topping
his earlier estimate of a 5.5 percent expansion. He has been tracking trends
in ad spending for nearly 50 years.

In his first estimate of spending in the year 2000, Coen expects 7.5 percent
growth next year as the presidential and congressional elections result in
more advertising at the same time that marketers are trying to capitalize on
the millennium and the Summer Olympics.

Coen said his figures include a mid-range estimate of about $1 billion in ad
spending on the Internet. But he is skeptical about the figure because of the
difficulty in measuring it. He told the Associated Press he suspects the
amount of advertising in weekly newspapers and shopping guides and at
in-store displays each probably exceed that on the Internet several times
over.

Overall U.S. ad spending is expected to rise to $213.95 billion in 1999 and
reach $230 billion in 2000, Coen said.